Roadway guard rail



Dec. 7, 1943. E. D. SAWYER ROADWAY GUARD RAIL Filed Nov. 24, 1941 Patented Dec. 7, 1943 UNITED STATES OFFICE. 3

, v 2333mm v 3 9 159 1 Sawyer, CH9??? tnrli etioi Membe 24, $9 .ie. ;NQ- 39 23 (01. ass-43a) This invention relates to. improvements yieldable highway guard rails, especially adapted for use on dangerous roadway, curves and ad- J'acent highway an m nt the p esent an;- plication being a continuation-in-part 015 my e o-pending application filed April l, 1938, Serial No. 199,933, on which Letters, Patent No. 2263,6919, issued on November 25, 1941.

The primary object of this invention is the provision of a guard rail which will ofier. substantial resistance to the. impact of an. auto: mobile, or the like, through a, considerable dis.- tance, and thus effect a gradual stopping of the same without undue jar or shock.

Heretofore rigid, semi-rigid and slightly flexible guard rails have been used, but these offer substantial resistance when deflected only a slight distance, and ofier practically no retardation pull after a vehicle has broken through any part of the guard rail structure.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a safety guard rail which can be constructed of rigid posts, sufficiently fragile, to prevent catapulting the occupants of the vehicle or upsetting the same on impact, and at the same time has sufficient retarding pull to bring the vehicle to a stop gradually.

Previous and present constructions of this character have utilized the breaking or uprooting strength of the guard rail posts to withstand the impact of a vehicle as a suddenly applied resisting force, whereas in my present construction the force of the impact is resisted by a gradual pull on the posts and if one or more of the posts are thus broken ofi, then the adjacent posts are used as gradual snubbing reactions instead of sudden shock resistors.

A further object of the invention is to eliminate the use of the straight-line suspension principle which is the cause of frequent-uprooting of the main end anchor posts of the existing types of guard rail. As is well known, the nearer straight a suspension cable is stretched between two supporting points, the smaller the impact load on the suspension cable required to produce a rupturing reaction at the supports, or a rupture in the suspension member itself, which, in this case, is the horizontal cable of the guard rail. My improvement provides a pay-out reaction support at the end posts which eliminates breakage in the horizontal cables and also permits the reaction support to operate for an effective period of time when snubbing the vehicle to a stop.

Other objects will. appear hereinafter.

Th e inyention consists in the. combinations. and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed. v

he n e o l b e t un r wqd refe ence to the accompanying drawing forming a, part of this specification and in which- Figure l is a plan view ofv the edge of; a road,- way slab, at a curve with the guard rail shown, pa a t e et Fig. 2' is a View taken substantially on line A+A.0 s-

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line Be B of, Fig 1;

Fig. 4 is a sectional; view online C Q 'Of i Fig. 5 is a sectional view on line DD of Fig 1;

Fig. 6 is a front or roadway view of one of the guard rail posts;

Fig. 7 is a side view of the post shown in Fig. 6; and

Fig. 8 is a top view of the post shown in Fig. 6.

The embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawing comprises an end post I located as indicated at the side edge of the roadway pavement, said post being the same post as disclosed more fully in my said co-pending application, Serial No. 199,933. Horizontal cables 3 and 3a are slidably mounted as shown on the combined guide and supporting posts 4, 5, 6 and 1 arranged as indicated in line parallel with the edge of the roadway. The cables 3 and 3a are spaced apart by means of outwardly arched spreaders 8 which are slidably connected thereto to cause said cables to function practically in unison.- Auxiliary snubbers 9, in the form of flexible cables, are coiled or wound around the bases of the posts 6 and have their ends connected as shown to brackets H secured to the lower of clamping members I!) secured by bolts Illa to posts 6 and connected by tie bars lflb as shown. The other ends of the cables 9 are anchored in the ground at 9a at the bases of the posts 6. The clamping members HI carry U- clips or guides l2 through which the cables 3 and 3a slide.

An additional spreader bar 3 is rigidly attached to the ends of cables 3 and 3a, adjacent the post I, and bridle cables [4 and I5 connect the ends of cables 3 and 3a with the ends of the extensible and retrievable pay-out cables l6 mounted in the post I, as is more fully shown and described in my co-pending application, Serial No. 199,933, said cables [4 and I5 serving to bridle or equalize the pull or impact on the pay-out cables I6 as will be readily understood.

In use, when an automobile ll moving along the roadway departs therefrom and strikes one or more of the posts 5 and 6, said posts will be sheared or broken off and the cables 3 and 3a deflected, as indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 1. When said posts are thus sheared or broken off, they are carried along with the cables 3 and 3a as indicated, and at the same time the cables 3 and 3a slide through the fastenings on the remaining posts, thus drawing the cables Hi from the post I against heavy resistance. When one of the posts 6 is thus broken or sheared off, it is carried along with the vehicle, but the anchored end of the snubbing cable 9 causes rotation of said post, thus effecting a further snubbing reaction tending to gradually stop the impact vehicle. The outwardly arched spacer bars 8 will arch over the end of an impacting vehicle and thus prevent the cables from passing over or under the vehicle. In this way the impact vehicle will be gradually brought to a stop without undue injury either to it or its occupants.

When the run-away vehicle has been removed, cables 3 and 32. may be drawn back to original positions by retrieving cables I6 into the post I, this effectively restoring the guard rails sufliciently until the broken posts 5 and 6 are replaced. In extreme cases, the fixed spreader l3 will be drawn against the first post 4 which is made somewhat heavier than posts 5 and 6, thus exerting at this point a further and extraordinary retarding pull on the impact vehicle.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred form of construction for carrying the invention into efiect, this is capable of variation and modification without departing from the spirit of the invention. I therefore do not wish to be limited to the precise details disclosed, but desire to avail myself of such variations and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A roadway guard rail comprising a plurality of posts arranged along the edge of a roadway; a flexible vehicle stop-member slidably mounted on said posts; flexible yieldable retrievable pay-out means connected with said stopmember and adapted and arranged to yieldingly permit material but resisted movement of any part of said stop-member away from said roadway; and means for manually retrieving said payout means when extended by contact of a vehicle.

2. The construction specified in claim 1 in which the stop-member consists of two parallel flexible cables having spacer bars slidably mounted thereon.

3. The construction specified in claim 1 in which the stop-member consists of two parallel flexible cables having one or more outwardly arched spacer bars slidably mounted thereon; and a spacer bar rigidly secured thereto adjacent their ends.

4. The construction specified in claim '1 in which one or more of said posts are provided with flexible snubbers secured thereto at one end well above the bottom thereof, coiled thereon, and having their other ends anchored adjacent said post bases.

. 1 EMERSON D. SAWYER. 

